VIDEO COMPRESSION FOR DIGITAL TELEVISION APPLICATIONS

Developments in video compression and VLSI technologies are producing revolutionary changes in the television industry. Television signals w orldwide are beginning to be compressed, encoded and transmitted using digital means. Using digital compression, encoding and transmission t echniques has the advantage of better bandwidth utilization, flexibili ty and ease of integration with other digital data, and an overall hig her quality of video at the receiver. The purpose of this paper is two -fold. Firstly, an introduction to video compression in the context of emerging digital television standards is provided. The important role played by International Standards, specifically MPEG, in the developm ent of digital television systems is discussed. Secondly, current tren ds in the use of compression in the development of digital television for deployment in the United States and Europe, and the participation of Philips in these new applications, are discussed.